The Electoral-Based Community

Why the rise of the left-wing blogosphere has been bad for the Democratic party.

Dean Barnett writes about the effect that the left side of the blogsphere has had on the increasingly out of the mainstream Democratic party. And his conclusion is that the Democratic party has suffered considerably as they have adopted the style of the left blogsphere. I think this is good as far as it goes, but there is also the issue of substance.

As we have seen in the last several elections, the country as a whole is moving in a more conservative direction. With each new election we have more Republicans in both the House and Senate, as well as increases at the state level. The reason for this is simply that most Americans, even though they may not be political junkies, as still generally conservative in their outlook. They want the country defended, they like private property and they don't want to pay taxes which are too high. They may not know who Ann Coulter is or the name of the Senate minority leader Harry Reid, but they do know what they want, and it isn't the liberal vision of a Socialist Utopia.

The Democratic leadership has adopted the views and style of the most hard-core of the left, which has a strong presence on the Internet. And as the Dems advertise their new makeover more and more stridently, their power diminishes accordingly.